Twenty visual artists and twenty poets respond to each other's work: a fine exhibition at the VAN (Visual Arts Network) Gallery in the Darwin Centre in Shrewsbury.

Opens on 30th September and runs to 2nd November. Not to be missed!

Poetry readings and artists speaking about their work: Saturday 5th October 1pm - 3pm in the gallery.

My own contribution is a collaboration with video artist Jill Impey. Jill has produced a short film called Liminal, partly in response to my poem Between. My new poem, This Primeval Infant Earth is dubbed onto the soundtrack.

Peanuts…the comic strip that was everywhere…sometimes funny…sometimes insightful…often bland…but always around and always a part of cultural language…good grief Charlie Brown…Snoop Doggy Dog…feisty Lucy…dreamer Linus…a little scruffy bird called Woodstock…the twenty-first century was bound to catch up with them sooner or later…Lucy is imprisoned in a Handmaid’s Tale dystopia…Linus was killed by an Israeli drone strike whilst working for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza…Woodstock died at Altamont.

My grandson, Freddy, has just celebrated his first birthday. What an incredible addition to life he is!

Fear ate too much of my childhood soul. The following poem is built around my best wish for Freddy, and indeed all children. The first and last verses are in italics and represent me talking to Freddy. The verses in between are about my own childhood.

Childhood exposure to classic western movies has left me with a love of cacti. Best of all are the huge saguaro cacti that stand tall, arms branching proudly, in the desert landscapes of the Americas.

Some cacti attract small insects that damage them, but these insects can be neutralised by careful use of a fine paintbrush and some methylated spirits. When the insects die they turn a gorgeous carmine colour, the basis for the making of the dye cochineal.

This poem makes use of that as a metaphor for a woman surviving domestic abuse, amongst other meanings.

This new 3-D collage makes use of a model of the Titanic in a glass-fronted box. The ship is meeting the iceberg and the piece is augmented by various images and texts. The text includes the words of the Titanic’s radio operator to his co-worker, advising him to use the brand new “SOS” signal: “It’s the new call, and it might be your last chance to send it”.

Mary Delany, of Collage International magazine, who has commented on my work before (see the Wordpress blog) writes: “This new piece by Ted Eames uses his trademark satirical humour to explore the ecological disaster that humanity is facing. The mythic status of the Titanic narrative allows for a playful, but compelling, symbol of human pride in unwinnable conflict with the forces of nature, embodied here by the rich green Iceberg Lettuce. The wealth of telling detail adds further layers of meaning, whilst retaining a captivating and haunting visual appeal. The political significance of the story told by this piece is taken a stage further by an accompanying image culled from an old advertisement for Iceberg Lettuce, on which Eames has superimposed the class breakdown of the Titanic’s casualties”.

Delany continues: “The polar bear image has come to symbolise the precarious nature of life under climate change. The text Eames has added provides the following summary: in 1st Class 60% of passengers survived; in 2nd Class 42% of passengers survived; in 3rd Class 25% of passengers survived; amongst the crew only 24% survived.

This leads us to the inevitable conclusion that a similar pattern will occur during the world’s ecological disasters ahead”.

I thank Mary Delany for permission to quote her words. More detailed images of the collage can be seen at the COLLAGE tab.